Department of English, Stamford University Bangladesh, organized a series of online talks in October 2020. Professor Salimullah Khan, Director, Centre for Advanced Theory at ULAB, delivered his lecture in the first webinar held on 7 October. The topic of his lecture was “Shakespeare after Cesaire: The Dialectic of Lordship and Bondage in Late Colonialism”. In the opening session, Professor Khan discussed the French writer Aime Cesaire’s play A Tempest – an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest – and also talked about how we still encounter colonialism (he termed it “late colonialism”) in the global south.
Dr Ahmar Mahboob, associate professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, gave a talk on “Regaining Balance: Relearning Religion” in the second webinar held on 10 October. In his virtual lecture, he provided a socio-semiotically informed response to the question – when religions preach peace, why do people hurt each other in the name of religion? He also focused on how to make a harmonious world by practicing religion and act of kindness, compassion, humanity and tolerance.
In the third webinar held on 17 October, Professor Himadri Lahiri, School of Humanities, Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata, delivered his lecture on English Studies: Old Paradigms, New Challenges”. He focused on how we had been going through the colonial hangover for many years, and why we need to decolonize our mind to rethink English Studies by incorporating interdisciplinary studies involving ecological humanities and digital humanities in the post- Corona pandemic world.
Students and faculty members from English Department and teachers from different universities (home and abroad) attended the webinars. However, Professor Ali Naqi, vice-chancellor of Stamford University Bangladesh, delivered his welcome address in the opening session while Sheikh Nahid Neazy, chair of the Department of English, hosted the sessions as the convenor.
This report is contributed to Fintech by Sheikh Nahid Neazy, associate professor and chair, Department of English, Stamford University Bangladesh.
